Fungi 2011

[Roma]

I have had my mystery fungus identified as the fruiting bodies of Pellia epiphylla - a liverwort.

See : http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=7084.msg197100#msg197100

[kiwi]

NZ Basket fungi - Lleodictyon cibarium.
A masterpiece of natures design.

[Anthony Darby]

My goodness!

[Lesley Cox]

I used, as a child, to see these sometimes in my mother's garden in Invercargill but I haven't seen one for at least 50 years!

[arillady]

Hells bells I have never seen anything remotely like that.

[Maggi Young]

NZ Basket fungi - Lleodictyon cibarium.
A masterpiece of natures design.

Extraordinary natural sculpture... and one that is replicated in one of the show gardens at Chelsea this year... I'll try later to find a photo of what I mean!

[Maggi Young]

Here's a photo of the garden I was thinking of... look at the construction in the background... that basket fungus to the life!

[Lesley Cox]

The basket fungus starts as a white pufball then literally breaks out to become the basket.

[David Lyttle]

It is getting a bit late for fungi here but we found a few different species on Friday in the beech forest at Waipori, a location inland from Dunedin.

1,2. A rather beautiful Russula growing under Nothofagus menziseii that I have identified as Russula griseoviridis.

3, 4 Something I cannot identify perhaps a Podoscypha.

5 Geoglossum

6 Armillaria

7 Geastrum

8 Waipori River flowing through mixed beech/broadleaf forest

[Anthony Darby]

I found that basket fungus in the woods at the Ruakuri cave, and on the football pitch up the road.

[daveyp1970]

David i love the pics of your fungi but that last shot is incredible,superb landscape.

[daveyp1970]

Could somebody id this for me please...is it edible?

[Lesley Cox]

With those white gills I wouldn't risk it Davey. I don't know fungi much at all but it looks enough like the death cap Amanita phalloides, to get rid of it. There are a number of Amanita species, all poison to some degree I think.

[Ulla Hansson]

Davey
On the line under the picture says April. I wonder, are the mushrooms photographed in April?
Grew one by one, or many together, in grass or forest.
The picture is similar Calocybe gambosa, but to eat a white mushroom, you have to be 100 percent sure. Some of the most toxic mushrooms are white.

[David Lyttle]

Davey,

Pleased you liked the photo of the Waipori River- I managed to drop my lens cap into the river but was able to retrieve it by feeling around under the bank.

Your mushroom is not Amanita phalloides.  Amanitas grow out of an egg-like structure. They have a universal veil at the base of the stipe (stalk) and a partial veil on the stipe below the cap. Ulla's ID sounds reasonable to me but judging from the reference I used it could be a few other things as well. If you wish to eat it make sure you leave some on the bedside table so the medics can identify it if you come to harm - it is easier that way than fishing around in partially digested stomach contents.

I would not presume to be able to identify a Northern hemisphere mushroom or any other mushroom for that matter as edible from a photo.